Lingering Senitments

Las Vegas…Sin City. It certainly lives up to the nickname. From the casinos to the theaters…from the comedy clubs to the adult entertainment. The psychic emanations of so many humans pursuing their desires was enough to fill a succubus’s soul many times over. But for Alurea, she was moonlighting in one of the night clubs. With her drop-dead gorgeous body, even absent her demonic features, she was amazing at hooking the crowd with her hypnotic gaze.

Once, so long ago, during the Hundred Years’ War, Alurea had utterly devoted herself to one man. In fact, among succubi, she had been something of an odd duck. Most succubi simply used men for stretches of time and moved on to the next. Alurea had the eccentricity of actually getting attached to the men she stayed with, often gluing herself to their sides all the way up to their deathbeds.

In the Hundred Years’ War, a count’s son proved strangely resistant to her gaze. Supposedly, he fell in love with her without her ever having to make him do so. In hindsight, this should have tipped her off that he was about to use her, but his promises in dressing her in the finest clothes money could buy were enough to sway her into helping him take his father’s place. Alurea genuinely loved Aleš; she didn’t count on him being so fickle.

Alurea looked at herself in the changing rooms, a solitary tear running down her face. The shattered heart, the feeling of betrayal, the need to utterly tear Aleš apart as he passed his crimes off as hers and had her awaiting the guillotine. It was in that moment - a moment of betrayal and pure, unparalleled anger, that Alurea enslaved the onlookers with her gaze and had them tear into Aleš and his royal guard.

Her sentimentality had made her weak - it took seeing the man she loved condemn her to death to realize that. And if the county wanted their monster, then fine: she would be their damn monster. She became their Countess of Ruin up until the war ended. Exactly like her fellow succubi, she became a user of men.

It came like instinct. It should have been perfectly natural. It was natural...so why did it hurt so much sometimes when she did it? Was it because she secretly longed to have that type of relationship with men, again?

“Stupid…” she trailed, the wine glass in her fingers cracking under her demonic grip. “Stupid. You’re a weakling, Alurea.”

Never again…she’d never again allow herself to love. And to become weak because of it. Drying her tear off, she kept her Glamour on, hiding her demonic features, her silver hair appearing platinum blonde under the right lighting. The only vaguely unusual thing about her when her demonic features were hidden was her eye color: magenta.

As she stepped out in a Jiangnan-style cheongsam, the hem was carried on a light breeze behind her. The lavender-colored gown was touched with intricate floral and butterfly patterns, the cuts on the side of the dress being thigh-high, showing off her slender legs. She hid her inner turmoil under a sensual and carefree smile.

Stepping out of the club, she walked down the Vegas Strip to where one of the casinos were. With the intensity with which gambling addicts chased their desires, she would find herself gorging on the psychic energy in the air. It was a common myth that succubi like her fed on men, and required...well, intimacy to sustain themselves.

That was a misconception. Succubi - at least, succubi of Alurea's caliber - could feed off any form of energy that is generated when a mortal pursues a desire of any type. Intimacy was simply stronger than other forms. The highs of emotion - pleasure, happiness, excitement - from gaining these desires and even the lows of emotion - anger, despair, envy - from losing them were all things she could feed on. The stronger and more positive the emotion, the more satisfying. Negative emotions could do in a pinch, but they got stale - and even toxic - over time.

Alurea thus had an active incentive to improve the spirits of mortals, even if it was only in the short term.